


An Interview with Deniss Vasiljevs

by orphan_account



Series: Vampire AU [8]
Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Another fic written in the format of an interview transcript, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-29 02:57:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19821118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: In which a newspaper interviewed Deniss, the Chief Curator of the Chillon Museum.





	An Interview with Deniss Vasiljevs

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not a native speaker of English, and this work has not been beta'd. Apologies for any language mistakes, and if you find any of them, please don't hesitate to tell me!  
> This is completely fictional.  
> Set 250 years after 'The Sun Will Rise', 52 years after 'An Interview with Elizaveta'.  
> This fic is inspired by the musical Hamilton, especially the song 'Who lives who dies who tells your story'.

_And when you're gone/who remembers your name/who keeps your flame/who tells your story?_  
_-Lin-Manuel Miranda, 'Who lives who dies who tells your story' from the musical Hamilton_

Allowing different species to mix is never an easy thing. People started to fight for it from almost five hundred years ago, achieving their first success by signing the Treaty of Lausanne in 1918, which allowed species to live in other species’ lands, provided that they follow a set of pre-agreed rules. The treaty was in place for a hundred years, before the infamous Purge took place. Nevertheless, there are always people who believe that all intelligent species can, and should be allowed to stay together, despite differences and even historical predator-prey relationships. The struggle continued for two hundred years, with many sacrificing their time, efforts and even life. Luckily, the new constitution is now in place, stating that all species should be treated equally and promoting social integration.  
This year marks the 250th year of the Vevey Incident in the history. The incident itself was partially the cause of abolishment of the Treaty of Lausanne, and the start of the Purge. The Museum of Chillon, also known as the Chateau de Chillon, is launching a campaign called “Together” to commemorate the incident. We are very honoured to have Mr Deniss Vasilijevs, the Chief Curator of Chillon Museum with us today, to discuss some of his insights with us.

H: Thank you for coming today.

V: Thank you for having me.

H: So, as we said, this year marks the 250th year of the famous, or infamous, Vevey Incident. Having experienced the incident and the Purge, can you share some of your thoughts on them with us?

V:[Smiles]The first question is a tough one. If you have asked me this question two hundred years ago, I might have locked myself in the castle and refuse to comment on it-but I can’t now, as it is a national museum. And yes, the incident. It happened when I was still very young, of course, on a vampire’s timescale. I hardly understand anything that is going on when it first happened. I only knew Steph[ane Lambiel] was brought back by Liza [Ms Elisaveta Tuktamysheva, Vice-Chancellor] and Chris [Sir Christopher Trevisan]. And both of them left the castle for sometime before I was called to the court as a witness.  
Many people, media, historians, social activists, have discussed whether what I said was…well, let’s say, deliberate. In today’s situation, it’s difficult to imagine that I didn’t understand what ‘abuse’ means then. And the fact is, I truly didn’t know. I’m not a native speaker of English, and having only lived in human society for five years, that word for me was still some sort of jargon. I wasn’t sure of its precise meaning, therefore, I asked for clarification because I knew everything I said would be important. The explanation given was ‘deliberately inflicting pain, physically or psychologically, on another person’. I hesitated and said yes, since in my knowledge, there were a few bitings taking place between them. And of course, biting will inevitably cause pain. I tried to give an explanation saying that it was consensual and there were no lasting effects, but was prevented to do so by the court. They believe that’s all they need to hear. Also, if you bother to check the dictionary, it was not the precise definition, although it might sound somewhat right to you.  
And everyone knows what happened after that. The treaty was evoked, they were accused of espionage and treason and finally different species lived in segregation again for two hundred years.  
I wasn’t actually affected by the Purge for the first fifty years. Although many other intelligent species were forced out, the government then didn’t attempt to seize the castle. I still didn’t know the reason, but I lived there for some years, almost undisturbed. However, I definitely didn’t live in peace. I’ve had nightmares, many sleepless nights and…I have to admit, even a few suicidal attempts, until two guests arrived there.

H: Mr Shimada and Mr Pulkinen?

V: Exactly. Actually, I didn’t expect them. When I heard someone knocking on the gate, I thought ‘they’ve come for me’ and a strange feeling of relief. But no, not human’s troops or police, but two people who seemed to have walked a long way and been trying to hide from something. Koshiro [Shimada] had known that there’s someone in the castle willing to provide shelter and protection for people who are prosecuted by the humans-but it was a long time ago. It was before the Lausanne Convention, and the person living here was Chris. He knew of the incident and knew that Chris passed away, but still decided to give it a try since the castle was the only lone island in the raging ocean which might protect them.

H: You let them in.

V: Yes. Chris saved me and gave me a home in the castle, so I thought I should do the same for them. Also, at that time, for me, it was a form of redemption. If I’m doing what they’ll do, it might be different.

H: What was the reason for you to leave the castle and go back to the woods then, if the castle wasn’t affected by the Purge?

V: The main reason was to build a network of people who are willing to work for a common belief. It wasn’t convenient to do so in the castle, since it’s in human’s land and we don’t know if we’ll be watched. We left and started to do some work in secret. You’ve probably known Koshiro as the Messenger, Camden [Pulkinen] as the famous speaker on the Montreux Rally. I also knew that Liza was working with a group of former responders. I contacted her group on behalf of my organization, but initially she didn’t know it was me.[Smiles] I was still in a state of…self-denial. I worked under a pseudonym during the whole process. I was afraid that people won’t want to work with me because I was that witness in court, and also, I want to get rid of my past which is my biggest nightmare. I’ve also had some correspondences from people overseas, for example, Satoko [Miyahara].  
And the decision to work for it…well, it was largely because of Camden and Koshiro. We’ve talked a lot. I told them my story, and they told me theirs. I couldn’t really tell you what happened, my memory is starting to fail me. In the end, all three of us thought that we have something to work on.

H: Why did you stop using the pseudonym, then?

V: I guess, the decision to give up ‘Publius’ was because I’ve reconciled with my past. ‘Deniss Vasilijevs’ was the person who testified in court, locked himself in the castle for fifty years and the unseen curator of the museum. ‘Publius’ was the writer, the non-verbal advocate. But they’re in fact, the same person.

H: So it’s like…I don’t know if that parallel is appropriate, but like two-become-one?

V: Exactly.

H: Speaking of the past, ‘Publius’ was the hero of this social movement.

V: He might be-Actually, I should say, I may be. But the past is something really complex for me.  
Time wise, we travel uni-directionally. People always talk about the ‘point of no return’, but in fact, nothing goes back. If you missed an opportunity because you hesitated, you missed it. If you did something, or did not do something and you regretted it afterwards, there is no way to make it happen the way you wish it to.  
I’ve dwelled on my past for quite a long time. There was denial, in which I refuse to acknowledge that person, or the person under the very name, is me. I wrote and worked under a pseudonym, and repeatedly told myself that I would do better. I slowly learned to accept it, which took me more than a hundred years. Until today, at the 250 year of our current constitution, I think I finally found my redemption. I was reading some historical records, including first-hand anecdotes and of course, many second-hand sources by our historians. And finally I read their letter once again. I’ve not actually read them for almost 200 years; I simply memorized them. I remember every word they’ve said. However, when you memorize something, it’s still different from reading it afresh. And as I came to the end of both letters, when Chris wrote me to look onward and forward, and Stephane told me to go on and be who I want to be, I told myself that it’s the time for me to look at my past straight in its eyes. And only when I accept my past, am I a truly complete person.

H: Do you have any plans for the future? We know that you’ve been writing a chronicle, but have you thought about writing something about yourself?

V: A memoir? No. My life up to now is, to use the best neutral word, very eventful. There is something I cannot even find the best word to describe, even up to today. And I don’t think I want to comment on my past. I accept them as they are, and see them simply as events. ‘It happened’, and that’s all.

H: But do you not have any intentions to, let’s say, correct what some people think of you?

V: I can’t control how people think of me, can I? I know there are varied interpretations of something I did in the past, from the Incident to the Purge, from Publius to the museum. But I don’t think I’m in a position to tell people how to think. They’re free to comment on anything, now or after I’ve reached the end of the long road. For now, I have more important thing to complete than saying ‘you should think me like this’; and after…well, many of the vampires are traditionally atheists and don’t believe in souls and afterlife. When my time is up, I mean, I won’t know anything and nothing would affect me anymore. I don’t think I should be concerned about other’s opinions at that time.

H:But once you did say that you think Mr Lambiel and Sir Trevisan were watching you from above.

V: It’s more like spiritual and emotional than religious. I don’t mean their souls or spirits are around me. I was just saying that their beliefs and what they taught me were still guiding me along the way.

H: Speaking of them, let’s coming back to the museum and the commemoration of the Incident. What will the campaign be about?

V: We see Vevey Incident as the direct attack on the possibility of different species forming a bond. Therefore, to commemorate this, we proposed this #Together campaign and we’d like to invite everyone to share their own stories of their relationship with the other species.

H: What type of stories are you looking at? Because they-Sir Trevisan and Mr Lambiel-were in a romantic relationship then, will you be looking for something similar?

V: No, anything is welcome. Romantic, brotherly or sisterly, even as neighbours, colleagues and…anything. I always think that it’s difficult to define the type of a relationship. It’s always a mixture of everything. I would actually hesitate to say that their relationship is strictly romantic, because there were many more between them.

H: There were comments then saying that Mr Lambiel chose to die for love, since the court did offer him a pardon-or actually, acquittal would be the better word. Standing in our place now, both of them did nothing wrong.

V: Acquittal was offered, indeed. But it came with a condition that he had to publicly attest to the abuse and psychological control, and as you would expect, to denounce the Treaty. I wasn’t there when that negotiation took place, but from some sources, he refused on the spot and saying ‘treason is better than perjury’. I wouldn’t try to interpret what he meant then. You can say he chose it for their love, by sharing each other’s fate; but he also sacrificed his life for their common belief. I suggested the engraving on their tomb stone, saying that they were ‘les camarades et les amants’; and I believe that’s the basic…well, ‘ingredients’, of their complicated but loyal relationship.

H: Have you met others who have such, as you said, complicated relationships?

V: A lot of them. We’ve also mentioned Camden and Koshiro before. Koshiro was a human and was converted to a zombie in an accident. They were friends when both of them were human, and fell in love afterwards. I would hesitate to say that their relationship was strictly platonic or romantic-it’s a mixture and there’s a gradual change. As for me, personally, I used to have a very close friend when we were working for the constitution in another country, and we started as some sort of colleagues and became personal friends. And if you know the former Responders, they also started as colleagues but end up being brothers and sisters in the darkest times. To the more light-toned relationships, we have Carolina [Ms Kostner, Minister of Finances], Tanya [Ms Tatiana Volosozhar, Deputy Minister of Health] and Max [Mr Maxim Trankov, Chief Inspector of the Responder Team] who were neighbours. As long as you think there’s an emotional bond formed, please share your story with us.

H: Thank you again for the inspiring talk. Do you have anything that you wish to tell the audience in the end?

V: I’ll quote Steph, as he quoted in his last letter to the Responders. ‘Even the darkest night well end, and the sun will rise’. We’ve seen the first light of dawn, and please do your best to enjoy the sun. For the vampires like me..well, you can still enjoy its beauty, can’t you?

**Author's Note:**

> 'Even the darkest night will end, and the sun will rise' is a direct quote from the finale of the musical 'Les Miserables'.


End file.
